


What Is Owed

by Anubisisbunagirl



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Demon Shane Madej, Demonic Possession, Gen, Haunted Houses, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24191047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anubisisbunagirl/pseuds/Anubisisbunagirl
Summary: Ryan promised he would never go back to the Sallie house, however a series of nightmares prompt him to do the very thing he promised never to do again. With tensions rising how will the boys relationship ever be the same again?
Relationships: Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej
Comments: 16
Kudos: 112





	1. I think we are gonna need more holy water...

**Author's Note:**

> Wowie! Demon Shane?! Yes pls. In all honesty, been reading so much demon shane, but I read it all. So I decided to create my own. Nyehehhehe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan suggests a surprising filming location to Shane.

Shane yawned and stretched into his chair, he was feeling rather tired these past weeks. He blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to stay awake. It was paranormal season after all, so it made sense why he was so tired. The good news was that it was the season finale soon, so Shane wouldn’t have to worry about it much longer.

Shane chuckled, Ryan seemed to be getting more and more brave on their little ‘ghost hunts’, it was pretty impressive. Of course, it made his job as a protective demon a little harder since the more taunting Ryan did the more the agitated and annoying the demons became. And it seemed like Ryan was starting to choose places with actually dangerous demons. Not that Shane couldn’t handle it, but it did make him more tired than he usually was.

Shane rubbed his eyes and yawned for the 50th time. He may as well call it a day; he hadn’t been as productive as he planned. It was foolish to think he had any juice left. Besides, he hadn’t really seen Ryan much at all. Such a waste. The only reason Shane bothered keeping up human appearances was for Ryan, otherwise he would do the bare minimum to keep this job.

But just as Shane was about to stand up, he noticed his black haired friend heading towards him.

Speak of the devil.

Shane grinned lazily as Ryan drew near, propping his legs on his desk, “Why hello there Ry, wassup?”

“You look like a douche bag” Ryan snickered slightly.

Shane grinned back, “That’s me baby, Shane Douchebag Madej.”

Ryan rolled his eyes slightly and grinned. But Shane noticed he seemed to have some bags under his eye.

“You doing good?” Shane asked in what he hoped was a nonchalant voice, lowering his feet back to the ground.

“Eh, as good as I can be when we are gonna visit a demon soon.” Ryan rubbed his eye, “Anyways. I dropped by to tell you our next location.”

“Cutting it a little close, are we? Aren’t we leaving in a few days?”

Ryan nodded, “I had a hard time picking a place, sorry. But we got everything in order now, flights, food, and where we are gonna stay.”

“So… where we headed? Haunted hospital? Haunted school? I always thought a haunted nunnery would be cool.”

Ryan offered a small smile before his face returned to a tired expression. “Nah, just a house.”

Shane cocked his head slightly, “Hmm?”

Ryan seemed to steel himself slightly before looking in Shane’s eyes, “We are going back to the Sallie house.”

Shane started forward in surprise, did he hear that right? “Huh?”

Ryan grimaced slightly, looking away.

“What brought this on?!” Shane asked, “I thought you never wanted to go back there.”

Ryan shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets, “I guess… Well it was where we got the most evidence. And I feel like now that we have better equipment like the Spirit box and motion trackers instead of just flashlights, we might get some solid evidence.”

Shane searched Ryans face, he really did look so tired. “Are you sure about this, bud?”

Ryan nodded, “Y-yeah. I am. We need to do this… I need to do this.”

Shane slowly leaned back into his chair, “…alright then Ry. Sallie house it is. Man, the viewers are gonna eat this up.”

Ryan let out a small smile, “Yeah, they are. Anyways, I gotta get ready. But I’ll see you later.”

Shane gave a small wave as Ryan turned and left, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread. Sallie house had been one of his least favorites places to film. And as much as he joked about it, it really wasn’t a place he wanted to go back to either. Sallie was a little too aggressive, a little too close to Ryan the entire time they were there the first time. It took all of Shanes willpower to keep from exposing himself right then and there and ripping the annoying demon to shreds.

But it seemed Ryan had his reasons; he wouldn’t have suggested the Sallie house without good cause. All Shane could do was prepare; Sallie wasn’t going to get anywhere near Ryan this time. Shane would make absolute sure of that.

______

Ryan was back in the Sallie house. But it was different, warped. The shadows seemed darker, and the walls seemed rotted. Ryan glanced around fearfully, “Hello?” He called into the void.

He barely took a few steps before he felt a breath from next to him. He whirled around to see a grinning demon. The demon seemed to be mainly made of shadows, but Ryan could make out stretched leathery wings and a horrifying twisted face.

Ryan yelled as he stepped away from the demon, he instinctively reached for his holy water gun, bringing it up to the demon’s face. The demon laughed as the pistol scattered into dust in Ryan’s hand, the Holy Water falling useless to the ground.

Ryan stepped back again, staring in horror at the demon as it laughed manically at him. Ryan turned towards the front door and ran to it, but the door handle burned his hand as he touched it. The demon continued laughing behind him, making no move to go to him.

Ryan desperately turned to the windows, trying in vain to get them open. But all he could do was pound on the windows as the demon continued laughing behind him. The street outside looked like an empty void, nothing but the Sallie house existed here.

Ryan continued pounding on the window, calling for someone, anyone to save him. He suddenly caught sight of Shane standing on the porch, facing away from Ryan.

“SHANE!” Ryan called, pounding harder, “SHANE! HELP!”

Shane slowly turned to Ryan, an unreadable expression on his face as he stared blankly at Ryan. Ryan couldn’t help but let out a small gasp as he saw Shane’s face, his eyes were pure black. Not only that, but he sported two small horns on his head, however one seemed cracked and broken off.

Ryan involuntarily took a step back, “S-Shane?”

Ryan jolted as he felt a heavy breath on his shoulder, it was the demon. Ryan couldn’t do anything but stand there in pure horror as the demon whispered into his ear. “You are playing with the devil, boy.”

“W-What do you mean?” Ryan squeaked, trying desperately not to pass out. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to give me your due.” The monster rasped, “I will not leave you alone until you do.”

Ryan struggled to find words and he continued to stare in horror at the demon besides him.

The demon leaned in, his breath hot on Ryan’s ear, “I await you.”

Ryan gasped as he shot out from his bed, eyes wide. He struggled to breath for a few seconds as he processed the world around him. He was in his bed… it was a dream…

Ryan slowly calmed down as he hugged his blankets close. It was that dream again, the dream of the Sallie house. He had been having nightmares every night for weeks now, always the same demon and always at the Sallie house. But this time… this time Shane had been there.

Ryan creased his brows, why had Shane been there? And why did Shane look like… Ryan closed his eyes, conjuring the image of dream Shane into his head, but it seemed fuzzy. He couldn’t quite remember…

Ryan slowly laid back into the bed, listening to the low hum of his clock. It wouldn’t be long now. It’d all be over soon. As soon as he went back to the Sallie house, the dreams would stop. He’d stop the demon once and for all.

Ryan gulped; it was so terrifying. He was so scared. But he knew he had to do it. He had to be brave. The image of the demon surfaced his mind, ‘I await you’. Ryan felt cold, the demon knew he was coming, he wanted him to come. And he wouldn’t stop tormenting Ryan until he obliged.

Ryan settled back into bed and closed his eyes, trying to brush the thoughts of a demon out of his mind. However, he didn’t get any more sleep that night.

_____

The drive to the Sallie house was sort of pleasant. Shane mused from his seat in the car next to Ryan. Sprawling neighborhoods, that were frankly quite beautiful. It might have been a pleasant ride with his best bud if not for the ending destination.

Shane wasn’t one to feel worry about locations, but he couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy about this one. Ryan seemed more silent than normal, and more… determined? He had stopped at a nearby church for some Holy water, and Shane was shocked to see him carry an entire gallon bottle of the stuff out.

He was careful to avoid the dripping bottle as Ryan placed it in the backseat, “Hey, isn’t there a limit to that sorta thing?” Shane asked a little nervously.

Ryan looked away from Shane, an expression of resolve on his face. “I called in ahead.” He stated simply, starting the car again. Shane didn’t want to push the matter; he could tell Ryan was on edge. He didn’t blame the man; the Sallie house had practically traumatized him.

As the duo neared the house, Shane felt the atmosphere shift. From one of pleasant neighborhoods to something more sinister, something ancient. Shane readied himself for the night to come, it would be insanely hard, but he was ready. He would make sure Sallie didn’t try shit.

Finally, the car stopped at the front of the house and the boys silently set to work getting cameras ready to go. They didn’t have any crew with them today since it was such a last-minute location, but they were ready for it.

Shane finished harnessing a go-pro onto Ryan’s chest, and the two turned towards the house.

“Uh, you ready to film the intro?” Shane asked, cutting the thick silence between them.

Ryan nodded slightly, hoisting his camera stick up.

“So, never thought we’d end up here again.” Shane started, using a light tone.

Ryan let out a breath that might’ve been a snicker, “Yeah,” he said in his normal loud voice, but it had an air of worry behind it. “I genuinely don’t know why we are here.”

“Well, you know we can just turn around and chicken out like you did last time.” Shane suggested helpfully.

Ryan rolled his eyes, “No, no chickening out this time. We are staying here the whole night, no matter what.”

“Well then, I guess we better get in there. Now that we got some nice ol’ goodies for Sallie.”

The duo approached the house carefully, pausing at the front door. Once it became obvious Ryan wasn't going to open the door, Shane reached out to open it instead.

As the door swung open a musty draft hit the boys faces, it smelled like a place that hadn’t been opened in ages.

Shane slowly stepped into the dark house, a feeling of strong demon aura filling him as he did so. Sallie was certainly home. Ryan followed suit, shuddering a little as he passed through the doorway. The door made a creaking sound as it slowly shut behind them, plunging the boys into a sort of darkness.

“Ghouls, the boys are here.”


	2. Well that didn't go the best...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane watched absentmindedly as Ryan lugged his huge bottle of holy water through the door along with a large container of salt. It seemed like Ryan wasn’t here to investigate… rather… trap a demon?   
> Shane could feel his heart pounding rapidly, Ryan had never taken that much Holy Water in a location before, what was he gonna do? Douse the whole place?   
> Shane suddenly felt uncomfortable, he didn’t like the holy water being in the house, he had assumed Ryan would just leave it in the car of something.   
> “Hey bud, do we really need that much Holy Water?” Shane laughed nervously, “I mean, are we trying to find a demon or kill it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took quite a while, lol. This is gonna be a somewhat long series with lore and plot, not just a quick Shane and Ryan fic. Sorry for problems in the story, grammar, spelling, ect I wrote this in one go and just didn't edit it.

Ryan was an idiot. Yes, that must be it. There was literally no other explanation for why the hell Ryan Bergara was currently standing in the very place he swore to never set foot in again. Ryan cautiously walked through the living room, eyeing the furniture around him. Everything looked the same as he remembered, except a lot dustier.

The house was eerily dark, especially considering the sun had not even set outside yet. Ryan paused before the basement door, his mouth suddenly dry. There it was; the place of his nightmares (quite literally). The very place where his horrific dreams had depicted the demon emerging from…  
Just behind that door…

Ryan stood, frozen in fear as he gazed intently at the door. He could swear the doorknob was turning, but it was probably his mind playing tricks on him. After all, there was no way a… demon would come out of the basement, right? 

Honestly, Ryan wasn’t that hopeful. His dreams were too realistic, too consistent to be anything but a dark force influencing his mind. Yes, Ryan must be an idiot. Only an idiot would go to the very place a DEMON had told him to go to. 

“Uh… you good there, bud?” 

Ryan jolted out of his thoughts and turned to look at a very confused Shane.

“Are we… gonna film or what?” Shane asked, eyeing Ryan with concern, “You’ve been VERY quiet and sort of staring at that door for a while.”

Ryan finally tore his eyes away from the basement door, turning towards Shane slowly. “Err… right.” He lifted his camera up in the direction of the living room and cleared his throat. “Let’s get this started, big guy.” 

Shane followed Ryan into the living room, still very concerned, “Hey, what was that ab-“

“Wow, this place hasn’t changed a bit, has it?” Ryan interrupted in a loud voice, turning his camera to show the entire living room. The message was clear, Shane was not to ask any more questions. Shane furrowed his brows, staring intently at Ryan. 

“So much dust too…” Ryan went on, ignoring Shane’s concerned stare, “You’d think they would have some sort of cleaning person come in every so often.”  
Shane wasn’t getting any answers any time soon, he sighed before lifting his own camera up and putting on his regular shit eating grin. “Well, I doubt the cleaning lady has demon insurance.”

Ryan wheezed at that, shaking his head at Shane’s comment. “Come on big guy, let’s tell the story of this place… again.” Ryan walked towards their equipment without a second glance at Shane and began setting up the cameras. 

Shane frowned again, no, something was clearly bothering Ryan he just wasn’t sure what it was. Shane wanted to chalk it up to demon jitters, but normally when Ryan was scared, he relied on Shane to help him feel safe. In this instance it was almost as if Ryan was purposely avoiding looking at Shane… it made no sense. 

And something else was bothering Shane… the demon, the one that haunts the Sallie house was nowhere to be seen. Not even a single ghost was visible, much less that horrible demon. The odd part was that Shane could still sense its presence in the house, but it seemed to be avoiding them.

That was good… right? Less work for Shane anyways. But Shane couldn’t help but be uneasy about the whole matter, it just didn’t feel… right. Between Ryan’s insistence to come to the Sallie house, his avoidance of Shane, and the Sallie demon hiding from view, Shane couldn’t help but feel there was something more at play here.

Shane watched absentmindedly as Ryan lugged his huge bottle of holy water through the door along with a large container of salt. It seemed like Ryan wasn’t here to investigate… rather… trap a demon? 

Shane could feel his heart pounding rapidly, Ryan had never taken that much Holy Water in a location before, what was he gonna do? Douse the whole place? 

Shane suddenly felt uncomfortable, he didn’t like the holy water being in the house, he had assumed Ryan would just leave it in the car of something. 

“Hey bud, do we really need that much Holy Water?” Shane laughed nervously, “I mean, are we trying to find a demon or kill it?”

Ryan turned to Shane and gave him a very serious stare, “I just… I need this holy water.” 

Shane furrowed his brow, “Ok, you are acting very weird. I know this is supposed to be for our investigation but it’s starting to feel like you didn’t just want to come here to film another episode of unsolved.”

Ryan bit his lip, “I don’t… I don’t want to talk about it right now. Look, let’s just start filming already.”

Despite Shane’s concern, he agreed to start filming. The boy proceeded to film the intro and story before moving on to various locations and spirit items, the spirit box wielded little result as did the flashlights, it seemed the Sallie demon didn’t have much interest in messing with them again. 

The entire time Ryan had a determined expression and held his Holy Water gun close. The banter wasn’t as silly as it normally was and honestly Shane was feeling very uncomfortable because of that.

At long last the pair stood in front of the door to the basement, both hesitating. Shane glanced over to find Ryan wearing an expression of fear he had never seen before, it was a mix of dread, horror, and determination. 

Shane was hesitating because of all the places in the house, the basement seemed to emit the most demonic energy, meaning Sallie was probably hiding down there.   
Shane coughed, “You know, we could just go home this episode was sorta a dud honestly. We can refilm a finale elsewhere if you want.” 

Ryan shook his head slightly, “No, we have to go down.” His voice was quivering slightly but he sounded resolute. Shane bit his lip, “Alright, I guess… I’ll go first.” 

The door creaked open, and Shane was hit with a wave of demonic power as Sallie became aware of the duo’s presence. Shane slowly made the descent down the stairs, flashlight lighting the dusty room below. 

No sign of Sallie yet, but Shane was sure the demonic entity was hiding somewhere in the room, he just needed to find where before it started causing trouble. Ryan was about a foot behind Shane as he too descended into the basement, his holy water pistol pointed to the back of Shane’s head for whatever reason. 

Finally, Shane’s boot made contact with the cold, dusty, concrete floor of the basement. He could feel Ryan slightly bump into him, as Shane paused at the entrance. He had a very bad feeling in his stomach almost like the most animalistic instinct to flee from danger. 

Sallie wasn’t a particularly strong demon, but they were unpredictable. He wasn’t scared of beating the demon, that would be easy. But Sallie was a tricky demon, they were crafty. And Shane had brought his biggest weakness, Ryan. 

“Hey, bud, why don’t you bring in our camera so we can finish filming in the basement.” Shane suggested innocently to Ryan, giving him an encouraging smile. Ryan nodded slowly and began to climb back up the stairs. 

Shane turned back to the room, a grim expression on his face. 

“Sallie, I know you’re in here.” He hissed in his demonic voice, letting his eyes pool into black. However, nothing answered.

Shane examined the room, sensing traces of the demon here and there, though they were faint. Almost as if the demon had just left. Shane frowned, was the demon really trying to avoid them? No, this must have been some sort of trick. 

“Sallie?” He growled, “What are you up to?”

He examined the room as thoroughly as he could, sending his demonic waves to wash over the entire basement. If Sallie was in the basement, Shane should have found him by now. Unless… Sallie wasn’t in the basement anymore. 

“Where are you, you beast?” He hissed through based teeth.

A small click sounded from behind him, giving Shane a start. 

“Right here.” A cold voice spoke. 

Shane whirled around to find Ryan! But it was not Ryan. 

Ryan was holding the Holy Water gun up towards Shane’s head, his eyes narrowed. Except there was something incredibly wrong with him. Dark bloody tears fell from his bloodied eyes, staining his cheeks. Ryan’s skin was also considerably paler, as if the blood were being drained from him. 

“Ryan.” Shane breathed, starting forward. Ryan gave the Holy Water gun a small squeeze causing a small arc of Holy Water to drop at Shane’s feet.   
“Not another step.” Ryan spoke, his voice a disgusting gravely tone as if two people were speaking at once. 

“No…” Shane said, stepping back, “Sallie…”

The demon gave Shane a small smile through Ryan’s face. 

“You bastard!” Shane roared, dissolving into his true demonic form, teeth bared and talons prepared to rip out the demons throat.

“Oh dear Madej, shouldn’t you be more careful?” The demon mocked in his disgusting voice, “Humans are quite fragile.” 

Shane growled slightly, lowering his talons, “What do you want, Sallie.”

The demon waved his other arm, keeping the pistol pointed at Shane, “Well Madej, I don’t know how long you expected to hide the truth from everyone.”

“Truth, what truth?” 

“The truth behind your little friends here.” The demon sneered. 

Shane felt his heart drop, so Sallie had found out. This was bad… very bad. 

“How did you find out?” Shane asked softly, his eyes downcast. 

“Last time your little friend was here, I found it odd a powerful demon like you would be following him around playing human. I couldn’t see much special about this weak little thing.” Sallie frowned, examining Ryan’s small hands. He glanced back up at Shane, and smirked, “But then… I got closer and I began to sense something deeper. You feel it too, don’t you?”

Of course Shane felt it, it was what had driven him to befriend the little guy. At first Shane was just goofing around in the human world, but then he had met Ryan. 

At first Shane just found Ryan a fun distraction, but as they hung around each other a bit more Shane had begun to sense it. A dark aura was hidden deep inside of Ryan, it was dark and wild, like a caged animal begging to be free. 

“You feel it right? The power that he holds.” Sallie breathed, extending his arms out. “This human has been cursed by a demon, an extremely ancient one. He holds more power than any demon. He rightfully belongs to the demonic realm.”

Shane clenched his teeth, “No… No he doesn’t.”

“Of you shut up, you were trying to keep him to yourself.” Sallie hissed, bringing the pistol back up to Shane’s face. 

Shane clenched his fists angrily, “No. No I wasn’t. I don’t desire endless power. I value this Human not because of the power he possesses, but because he is my friend.”

Sallie gave a mocking laughter, “Oh please, friends? Demons don’t HAVE friends. In this world, it’s kill or be killed. Not to mention, I can sense this Humans hatred of demons. And I assume he does not know that you are in fact one.”

Shane looked away, yeah, Ryan would probably hate him if he knew. But he would hate himself even more if he couldn’t protect the human. 

“Say goodbye, Madej. I’ll see you in hell.” The demon cackled, taking aim with the pistol. But he seemed to be having some trouble as he hesitated, bloody tears falling from Ryan’s eyes at a faster rate. He began to scream in agonizing pain, dropping the pistol to the floor. 

Everywhere the bloody tears touched began to hiss and smoke, causing Sallie to scream louder. He fell to his knees, clawing at his bloodied face. “It’s inside.” He screeched, “GET IT OUT, GET IT OUT.” 

Shane watched in horror as the demon began to cough up blood, seemingly trying to expel something. Finally, Shane could feel the dark presence of Sallie shoot out of Ryan with one last hard cough. 

Ryan’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he passed out. Sallie stood in front of Shane, heaving. “That kid…” He panted, “He holds holy protection.” 

Shane glanced down at Ryan, the color was beginning to return to his skin and his eyes had stopped bleeding, but he was covered in a grotesque amount of blood. Shane could feel his anger beginning to build up. He turned to Sallie, eyes black as coal and teeth bared.

Sallie held his hands up hurriedly, “Hey… hey calm down. Look, he belongs to the demonic realm I was just trying to return him to his rightful place-”

Shane thrust his hands around Sallie’s throat, eyes blazing with fury. “He belongs nowhere.” Shane hissed, “Now you are going to go back to hell and forget this ever happened, don’t tell anyone, you hear?”

Sallie nodded quickly before dissolving into dust. 

Shane sank to the floor, sitting against the hall. There was no way in hell Sallie would keep quiet about this. The kind of power Ryan could give a demon was insane, perhaps even enough to challenge the devil himself. 

Shane eyed Ryan’s limp form, but it seemed he had some holy protection to keep a demon from possessing him for too long. That was lucky. Maybe some sort of Angel blessing due to the power he held? 

Shane’s head was beginning to swim with all this new information, this ran much deeper than he had expected. He just assumed that perhaps Ryan was cursed by some sort of minor demon, but Sallie made it sound like a much bigger deal. 

Shane sighed before getting up, he picked up the limp body of Ryan and started back up the stairs. 

Well, this made for one hell of a season finale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm making some art to represent what possessed Ryan looks like, I just had a fun imagining what a possessed person would look like.


	3. UH EXCUSE ME... TF?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan wakes up at the hospital confused. Why doesn't he remember what happened the night before? And did he really just pass out from dehydration? Is Shane not telling him something? (Spoiler of course Shane is lying).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaaaatttt an update??!?!?? Yeah... Been a while ay? Well worry not dear friends, I have not forgotten my favorite demon Hunter bois!

_Ryan Bergara was not a people person._

_No, you would never find Ryan at a club on Fridays, or hanging out in a café on the weekends, or even sitting with friends during lunch. Ryan would just rather spend his Fridays at home, watching the latest crime show. He would rather spend his weekends stuck indoors finishing projects from the workweek before. As for lunch, it certainly wasn’t weird to just finish lunch and get back to work without socializing was it?_

_It wasn’t like he was too nervous to hang out with anyone or anything…_

_Not like he stared fondly after his coworkers as they left work for a fun club or sat alone at a table wishing he had someone to talk to during lunch._

_‘I’m just not a people person.’ He told himself._

_And it was because Ryan Bergara was not a people person that he groaned when he noticed Steven Lim approaching him one workday._

_Bergara was not annoyed at Steven, not in the slightest. Steven Lim was probably the closest thing Ryan had to a friend in the entirety of Buzzfeed. He always spent time to hang out with Ryan every now and again, talking to him about mundane things and asking him what kind of projects he was up to. He had even cast Ryan in a few of his own videos._

_No, the thing that had made Ryan groan was the grinning man Steven was leading towards Ryan._

_“Who is this?” Ryan sighed, turning away from his computer, as the duo approached his desk. He took in the appearance of the man next to Steven, noting his chocolate brown hair and Slavic eyes. The man had a smile that just screamed ‘cocky’ and ‘arrogant’, something that Ryan found rather irritating._

_“This is Shane Madej! He just started working here.” Steven explained, flashing Ryan a big smile. “The boss told me to show him around and meet new people.”_

_“Hello.” Shane exclaimed, sticking out his hand, “Nice to meet you.”_

_Ryan hesitated, his eyes narrowing, “Name’s Ryan…” he cautiously shook Shane’s hand._

_“Watch’a working on, Ry guy?”_

_“Ry guy?” Ryan started, “what the-“_

_“Great!” Steven exclaimed, clapping Ryan on the back, “Good to see you two getting along so well! Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting.”_

_“Whoa, hold on!” Ryan exclaimed, quickly grabbing Steven before he could leave. “I thought it was your job to show him around.”_

_Steven sheepishly scratched his head, “Errr… Well I have a pitch meeting in a few minutes that I sorta need to go to. So… I was hoping you could show Shane here the ropes?”_

_“Wha-“_

_“Yay! Thanksomuchimcountingonyou!” Steven exclaimed, pulling away from Ryan and quickly disappearing down the hall._

_Ryan looked after him, shocked. “That little…” He groaned in frustration, falling back down into his chair. “What the heck does he expect me to do with you?!” Ryan shot Shane a glare, which Shane responded to with a smirk._

_Ryan huffed before turning back to his computer and typing furiously. Shane hummed, pulling a chair from the empty desk next to Ryan and sitting down._

_“So?” Shane drawled._

_Ryan sighed, barely giving Shane a second glance, “What?”_

_“Aren’t ya gonna show me around?” Shane grinned._

_Ryan scoffed, “No. That’s not my job. Why don’t you just show yourself around.”_

_Shane pouted lightly, “No way, it wouldn’t be the same!”_

_“Well, you’re not my problem.” Ryan snapped back in irritation. Shane only gave him a small chuckle in response. He hummed, spinning around on his chair in boredom. Ryan continued to work on his computer, decidedly ignoring Shane, yet the taller man was quickly getting under his skin._

_“Whatcha working on?” Shane spoke, stopping his chair from spinning and leaning towards Ryan to catch a glimpse of his screen. Ryan quickly shoved Shane away, rushing to cover his screen._

_“That’s none of your business!”_

_Shane laughed, dodging Ryan and smacked his hand away from the screen._

_“HEY!” Ryan complained, falling backwards in his seat._

_“Test Friends?” Shane read aloud. “What’s that?”_

_Ryan sighed, “It’s my video pitch for this week.”_

_“What is it about?” Shane asked, staring intently at Ryan._

_Ryan shrugged sheepishly, “I don’t know. It’s dumb…”_

_“No, I just wanna know.” Shane encouraged, giving Ryan a small smile._

_Ryan bit his lip and scratched his head, “I don’t know. I guess it’s like a series where a bunch of friends test out new things…”_

_Shane laughed, “I love it! So, like, would they test vegan burgers or something?”_

_Ryan gagged, “Vegan burgers? What? Dude, that’s disgusting. Wouldn’t it be like just lettuce between two buns?”_

_Shane rolled his eyes, “Substitute beef DOES exist, Ryan.”_

_Ryan wheezed, shaking his head, “If it wasn’t cut straight from a cow’s body, it doesn’t deserve to be in a burger.”_

_Shane laughed, “Ok now you HAVE to put vegan burgers on the list of things you try.”_

_Ryan grinned, opening his mouth to retort, but at that moment Steven had walked back into the room._

_“Hey guys. How’s it going?” Steven exclaimed, making his way towards the duo. Shane immediately stood up to greet Steven, and the two began exchanging pleasantries. Ryan watched, the grin slowly fading from his face. A strange feeling of iciness settled in his chest._

_He slowly tuned back to his computer and began to work again. But he couldn’t concentrate with Shane and Steven standing so close to him, laughing at a joke one of them had said. He could hardly concentrate as he heard one of them mention lunch, and both turned to leave._

_Ryan wasn’t jealous or anything. Not like he wanted to go with them anywhere._

_“Hey.”_

_Ryan jolted, turning to look at the tall form of Shane standing in front of him._

_“Hmm?” Ryan hummed in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone._

_“Me and Steven were thinking of hitting Chipotle for lunch, wanna come?”_

_Ryan was not a people person._

_Right?_

_Did Ryan ever wish he had a friend to talk to and joke with? A friend who would want to eat lunch with him and wait up for him whenever they went somewhere. Maybe he did._

_Ryan looked up towards Shane’s grinning face, the former feeling of iciness beginning to ebb away._

_Maybe Ryan was a people person…_

_And maybe Ryan had just found a new friend._

_“Sure.”_

_\---_

There was a darkness surrounding Ryan Bergara as he came into consciousness. A dark, entrapping, all encompassing darkness. Ryan groaned lightly, shifting his himself to the side. He felt heavy all over, not just his body, but his mind felt extremely sluggish as well.

Where was he?

Ryan let out another groan as he struggled to open his eyes. A flash of white suddenly entering his vision as he managed to lift his eyelids slightly. Ryan hissed at the sudden brightness, instinctively raising his hand to shield his eyes from the attacking light.

“Whoa, Ry?” A concerned voice spoke from besides him.

Ryan whipped his head towards the voice, squinting at the blurry form of a man. “Shane?” He croaked, “Is that you?”

As his tall friend approached Ryan, his face became clearer, revealing a warm smile as he gazed down at Ryan. “Hey there little guy, how ya holding up?”

Ryan groaned, leaning back into what he now could tell was a bed. “Feels like shit. Where the hell are we?”

Shane scratched his neck sheepishly, looking around the white room they both resided in currently. “Ah… Well… We were at the Sallie house-“

“Oh shit, that’s right!” Ryan exclaimed, shooting up into a sitting position before a wave of nausea overcame him.

“Whoa there.” Shane rushed forward, carefully leaning Ryan back down into a lying position. “Be careful.”

“Sorry big guy.” Ryan coughed lightly, “Guess I’m still jittery from that place. But it doesn’t look like we are there anymore, so what happened?”

“Right...” Shane nervously tapped his fingers on the table next to Ryan’s bed, “well… what’s the last thing you remember?”

“Ah… I think…” Ryan frowned, concentrating, “we were in the basement… and you told me to go up and get a camera? So I went up and then-“

Ryan hissed as a sudden flash of pain erupted in his head. With a slight gasp, Shane started forward, but Ryan waved him off quickly. Shane watched worriedly as Ryan slowly seemed to overcome the pain, rubbing his head and mumbling curses under his breath.

“You good?” Shane asked nervously.

“Ugh, yeah. Sorry I don’t know what that was…” Ryan mumbled. “But can you tell me what happened after I went upstairs?”

Shane cleared his throat, “Right. So, a little after you left, I heard a weird thump. I came up and found you passed out on the ground. So, I picked you up and quickly went to the hospital.” He awkwardly gestured around the hospital room they were in as if to solidify his claim.

“Geez…” Ryan breathed, “I guess that’s one way to end a ghost hunt…”

“I mean, I knew you were scared of the Sallie house, but I didn’t know it was enough to make you pass out.” Shane smirked at Ryan, laughing as the smaller man halfheartedly pushed him away with a groan.

“Yeah well, don’t get used to it.” Ryan groaned, his face red with embarrassment.

“Ryan Bergara?” A voice spoke from the doorway causing both Shane and Ryan to jump.

Ryan looked towards the door to see a smiling doctor standing there holding a clip board.

“Ah, hello doctor.”

“Glad to see you awake.” The doctor commented warmly as he made his way over to Ryan’s bedside. “How are you feeling?”

Ryan grimaced, scratching at his head. “Uh, a little bit disoriented, but other then that, fine I guess.”

“Very nice.” The doctor nodded, flipping through the papers on his clipboard, “It seems like a night of rest did you some good. I think you should be good to sign out by noon.”

“Doctor, do you know what exactly happened to me?” Ryan questioned, looking up to the doctor.

The doctor pursed his lips, glancing up towards Ryan, “Well… We can’t say for sure. But I will say when you came in you had extremely low blood pressure. That normally comes from heart problems, extreme injury and blood loss, or dehydration.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Ryan could have sworn he saw Shane flinch when the doctor had said “blood loss”, but when he turned to look more closely at his tall friend, he found no evident reaction.

“Tell me, how much water have you been drinking this past week?” The doctor asked, snapping Ryan’s attention back on him.

“Ah, well..” Ryan frowned, trying to remember, “I guess… like not much actually. Just some coffee in the morning really.”

The doctor nodded grimly, “Then the most probable cause of you passing out was dehydration. It would also account for your low blood pressure.”

Shane snickered from beside Ryan, “Seriously? All those gallons of Holy Water and you passed out from _dehydration_? How embarrassing.”

Ryan rolled his eyes, “Shut up you douchebag.”

The doctor awkwardly cleared his throat, drawing the two men’s attention back to him. “Anyways Mr. Bergara, I’ll run some final diagnostics then you are free to leave. I’ll be back.” With that, the doctor left the room leaving Ryan and Shane alone again.

Shane turned to Ryan, grinning broadly. “Ryan Bergara, self-proclaimed ghost hunter, defeated by water?”

Ryan groaned, lying back down in the bed, “Shut up.”

\---

The transition from the weekend after his trip to work on Monday was surprisingly smooth, Ryan found. Normally after a ghost hunt he’d be skittish for at least 5 days after the event, but surprisingly he was rather calm. This was especially weird considering he had not only collapsed during the ghost hunt, but it was one of his absolute most feared place on earth.

Perhaps it was because of the lack of nightmares he had after the event. The weeks leading up to the Sallie house had been torturous and full of anxiety, not having any nightmares again was practically heaven. 

Of course, he still felt a little off after the incident, but in general things seemed to be returning to normal.

Stepping into the ever busy Buzzfeed building Monday morning, Ryan found he was looking forward to going to work. Sallie house was the season finale and sure it’d still have to be edited, but it meant Ryan wasn’t going to have to go to any haunted locations again for a few months.

As fun as filming in haunted locations was, the weeks leading up to and the whole Sallie house trip had been a total disaster. Ryan was looking forward to a nice and calm season of True Crime.

Ryan walked through the office, greeting his coworkers cheerfully as he passed. With a content hum, he sat down at his desk and booted up his laptop.

“Someone is in a good mood.” An amused voice commented from besides Ryan. Ryan looked up to find Steven smiling down at him.

“Ah, yes. Glad I’ll never go back to that hell hole again.” Ryan smirked.

Steven hummed lightly, tapping his fingers on Ryan’s desk, “Well I also heard… you fainted?”

Ryan grimaced, “Ah yeah.”

“What was the haunted house too scary for you?” Steven chuckled.

Ryan felt his cheeks flush as he hurriedly shook his head, “No! The doctor said it was uh… dehydration.”

Steven let out a small laugh, “What? With the amount of coffee, you drink?”

“Yeah, apparently only drinking coffee in place of water is NOT a healthy practice. Who knew?” Ryan rolled his eyes, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

“Course.” Steven grinned, turning away, “Oh, and Ryan?” He held up the cup of water in his hand and shook it slightly, smirking, “Make sure to hydrate.”

“Augh, shut up.” Ryan groaned, shooing a laughing Steven away.

As soon as Steven left, Ryan got straight to work. He had to finish editing a Buzfeed unsolved postmortem. Ryan found that he was being surprisingly productive, even managing to finish the video by lunch time. But as Ryan got up to eat a well-deserved lunch, he realized he hadn’t not seen Shane all day. This was especially weird because Shane loved annoying him at work.

And by the end of lunch, there was still not sign of his tall friend. Finally, a little later in the day, Shane finally appeared at Ryan’s desk looking somewhat annoyed.

“Oh, there you are Shane.” Ryan grinned, looking up from his laptop, “I missed you at lunch today.”

Shane hummed dismissively; his face still set in a frown.

“Hey, everything good?” Ryan asked in concern, his smile slowly fading away.

“Eh. Yeah, sorry.” Shane sighed, rubbing his eyes, “Look, I was in a meeting today and we were discussing the season finale of Buzzfeed Unsolved.”

“What happened?” Ryan demanded, standing up.

“Ugh. They seem to think that this particular episode didn’t do so well. There wasn’t a lot of good jokes, not much “paranormal activity” or whatever, and there was no ending since you collapsed halfway through. They are saying that unless we are able to find a new location and film in the next 2 weeks, we just won’t have a season finale.”

“Great.” Ryan groaned, “Well, how the hell are we supposed to pull that all together so quickly?”

Shane shrugged, “We could just skip the finale this season-“

“No.” Ryan spoke firmly, cutting Shane off, “We are NOT going to do that. Look… I’ll just find somewhere new, anywhere really. And we can clear next Monday for travel. How does that sound?”

Shane gave a short nod of confirmation, “Sounds great beef man. Oh, also there’s this.” Shane placed a cracked camera on Ryan’s desk.

“What’s this?” Ryan asked, picking up the cracked camera and examining it.

Shane scratched his head sheepishly, “Ah, that’s the camera you dropped when you collapsed. It’s pretty much broken. Don’t worry, Buzzfeed will pay for the damages since it was an accident. I don’t think we can recover much footage since it was smashed pretty bad, but if you can extract anything from it…”

“Yeah, got it.” Ryan placed the camera on his desk again and turned to Shane. “Great, I guess I should begin looking for a new location.”

Shane nodded before cracking a small grin, “How about a water mill? That was we can be sure you don’t pass out again. Or maybe a water bottle factory?”

Ryan groaned, falling back down to his chair, “I’m never gonna live this down, am I?”

“Nope!” Shane declared cheerfully, turning around and stalking away.

Try as he might, Ryan found that looking for a new haunted location in a day was a hassle. It was nearly impossible to navigate through the millions of links for shitty haunted houses various fairs and carnivals were advertising. As terrifying as “Bogo’s Haunted House” sounded, Ryan doubted it had any ghosts.

By the time people had begun clocking out of work, Ryan was no closer to finding a new location than when he had started.

“Hey Ry, you doing good?” Ryan heard Shane ask from behind him.

“Ugh, yeah. It’s just pretty hard to find a good location.” Ryan sighed, leaning backwards on his chair to look up at Shane.

“Maybe you should take a break?” Shane suggested, “Steven and I are going out to the diner down the street if you wanna come along.”

Ryan considered it, but a glance towards his still open computer screen made the decision for him. “Sorry, I have to get this done.”

“Hmm... Ok. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” Shane smiled, bumping Ryan as he passed by, exiting the office room.

A quick glance around the office told Ryan that he was the only one still there. It was a tad spooky if he was being honest. But as he turned back to his screen, he noticed the cracked camera still sitting on his desk.

Ryan figured he may as well take a quick break from his endless google searches to see if he could extract any footage from the camera. So he carefully inserted the cord from his computer into the camera and browsed the camera’s files.

He found that there were a few splotchy patches, but the footage was surpassingly ok. The audio had been completely broken however, so there was no sound to the various shots of the Sallie house. Not that it mattered anyways since they weren’t going to use the footage.

Ryan sighed; it really was a waste. Why suffer through going to the Sallie house if they didn’t even get any video material from it. Although, it was worth it since it seemed to get rid of his endless nightmares. That was probably worth the trip.

Lazily, Ryan clicked on the last footage file from the camera, it was a shot facing the living room. For a while it was just that, a boring stationary shot. But about three fourths of the way into the video, Ryan noticed the room seemingly grow darker.

That was odd…

Ryan frowned, watching as the battery icon on the top left of the screen seemingly dropped out of nowhere, going from a 34% charge to a 3% charge. Ryan screeched as the camera footage suddenly jostled slightly as though someone was picking the camera up. But then he realized it was just from when Shane had told him to get the camera and bring it to the basement.

And sure enough, as soon as the camera was picked up, it was quickly dropped to the floor causing a brief burst of static as the lens made contact with the hard ground. Ryan watched it astonishment as the footage cut to a stationary shot of the basement door as the camera continued rolling despite being dropped. He could even make out the slightest bit of his shoes from where he had supposedly passed out.

If this was what Ryan thought it was, then according to Shane this was when he had collapsed, and Shane would be coming up the stairs any second now. But to Ryans utter horror, instead of Shane coming through the door, he watched as his own passed out formed shifted, slowly getting back up. Ryan had absolutely no memory of this happening, and hadn’t Shane said he found him passed out in the living room?!

Ryan watched with a racing heart as his dark form opened the door to the basement and made his way down into the inky blackness. For a few minutes more, all Ryan saw was the stationary shot of a slightly opened door leading to the basement. Neither Shane nor Ryan emerged from the door for a long while.

“Come on…” Ryan muttered urgently as he eyed the camera’s battery level dropping. Finally, a figure emerged from the basement and-

The footage suddenly cut out as the camera had completely lost its battery.

“No!” Ryan cursed, quickly skipping the footage back to right before the figure emerged from the basement. It took a few tries, but Ryan finally managed to hit pause at the exact time the figure had appeared. And what he saw displayed on his screen was truly a disturbing sight.

It seemed to be the tall form of Shane carrying a passed-out form that was presumed to be Ryan. Ryan could feel his blood run cold as he stared at the image. So, Ryan had somehow managed to get back up after passing out and had walked down to the basement on his own. Why would Shane lie about that? And why couldn’t Ryan remember what had happened?

But what was truly the most disturbing thing was not the circumstance, but the shadowy from of Shane. As Ryan looked more closely at the image, he could barely make out a weird object on Shane’s head. It looked curled and pointed…

‘Horns’ Ryan’s mind supplied.

Ryan shook the thought out of his head quickly, there was no way. Literally no way. But as Ryan continued to look at the distorted image of his friend, he couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his back.

There was something weird going on there. Something big had happened in the Sallie house. And Shane had lied to him for some reason.

Taking a deep breath, Ryan slowly disconnected the camera from his computer and set it carefully in his bag. He would have to look at the footage more closely when he came home. But Ryan’s head was racing as he continued to stare blankly at his glowing computer screen.

How was he supposed to approach Shane about this? What was he supposed to do? Ryan could feel his body beginning to fill with intense anxiety as his mind raced through all the options of what he could do, yet one option stuck out to him.

Maybe if he…

Ryan slowly sat up; his eyes wide. Of course! He knew exactly what to do.

With a determined expression, Ryan quickly began to type something into his computers search engine. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Expect a few more memory scenes. I love exploring the friendship between nah bois!! :V

**Author's Note:**

> :V


End file.
